The Poetry Project is pleased to announce The 2025 Lisa Brannan Prize, judged by Laura Henriksen.

The Lisa Brannan Prize is a $1,000 prize for emerging poets in honor of Lisa Brannan, a former Poetry Project intern and poet. In addition to the financial prize, the winning poet will have one poem published in the Poetry Project Newsletter. The generosity and dedication of our interns and volunteers — often emerging poets themselves — is invaluable to The Poetry Project, and we are so honored to offer this prize in the memory of our former intern.

Lisa Brannan was a Poetry Project intern in New York City during the mid-1990’s. She was born in Utah, grew up in South Carolina, and moved to New York to study engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. While a student, Lisa began to develop an interest in the local literary and cultural scene of Lower Manhattan. She joined The Poetry Project as an intern in 1995 and helped the Project with event promotion and archiving. Lisa's time with the Project was one of the most joyous times in her life. She developed her writing by immersing herself in the world of the subjects and themes that interested her. Lisa passed away in 1997, at the age of 22 in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Submission Guidelines:

There is no fee for poets interested in submitting to the prize. Poets interested in having their work considered should observe the guidelines below:

• Submit up to 3 previously unpublished poems in a single .pdf attachment, not to exceed 6 pages.
• Only one entry of up to 3 poems per poet.
• We cannot accept international submissions at this time.
• Personal identification should not appear in the submission document in any form. The judge for The Brannan Prize will review all submissions without any identifying information.
• Emerging, in this case, will not be defined by age but by publication record. The criteria for submission is that the poet may not have published a full-length book at the time the prize is given, although chapbook publication is fine.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Due to the volume of work we receive, if your submission does not follow the above guidelines you will not be eligible for consideration.

Submissions for The 2025 Lisa Brannan Prize are now open and will close at 11:59PM ET on Wednesday April 30.

Read the work of previous winners below